Monday, April 20, 2009

Review by Vik IyengarAfter years of being overshadowed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh left the Wailers to pursue a solo career. Released in 1976, Legalize It is a bold statement that Peter Tosh had arrived and was a creative force in his own right. Although he explores some issues of spirituality, this is Tosh's most lightweight album in the sense that it is his least political. This is not meant as a criticism -- in fact, Tosh's playfulness and joy ("Ketchy Shuby") only add to the album's charm. He does make political statements (the title track celebrates and promotes the use of marijuana), but they are done with a sense of humor and a melodic infectiousness that belie his sincere concern for the issues. Tosh incorporates many instruments and mixes slower ballads with upbeat grooving tunes. The album's highlight is "Why Must I Cry," a multi-layered song (co-written with Bob Marley) that conveys a sense of personal failure when fighting an uphill battle, whether it be against injustices of the world or within the confines of a relationship. Legalize It cemented Tosh's position as a giant in reggae, and the album is one of the best albums of the genre.

Review by Stephen Thomas ErlewineAfter spending a dark, contemplative night on the Road to Rouen, Supergrass come crashing back to life with Diamond Hoo Ha, an album every bit as cheerfully gaudy and vulgar as its title. It all begins, as it should, with "Diamond Hoo Hah Man," a wicked send-up of the White Stripes' gonzo thump that rivals "Blue Orchid" and "Icky Thump" in its outsized swagger, while providing the touchstone for the rest of the record, not so much in its sound but in its attitude. Not that Supergrass doesn't crank the guitars here, as they offer up the stomping Stooges shuffle of "Bad Blood" and spangly "Rebel in You" in quick succession, but after this furious opening triptych, the band widens their net and lightens their touch, reconnecting with their signature impish humor that was quite deliberately missing on much of Road to Rouen despite its punning title. At times they actually overplay their mischief, overloading "Whiskey and Green Tea" with too much stylized British whimsy, it threatens to topple over on the weight of its braying brass. This isn't the only time that the band doesn't seem to fully have their urges under control, as there are a few pop tunes toward the end of the record that don't quite click as their hooks aren't finely honed. This is how Diamond Hoo Ha differs from 2002's incandescent Life on Other Planets which offered song after song that effortlessly dazzled. Here, Supergrass seem to labor a little to achieve such high times...but only toward the end of the record, which is solid and well-crafted but lacking the glorious, giddy highs the band offers at the beginning. However, that first half -- somewhat ironically ending after the jazzy soft rock sheen of "Return of Inspiration" -- holds its own with the best of Supergrass, filled with mammoth melodies and unbridled fun. It's more than enough to make Diamond Hoo Ha worth hearing, and it's just enough to illustrate the difference (and the merits) between inspiration and craft.

Review by Stephen Thomas ErlewineWith their debut, 40 Oz. to Freedom, Sublime attempt to have it both ways. The group wants to appeal to alterna-punks, but they want to cut a little deeper and make some sort of social statement, both with their lyrics and their self-consciously eclectic music. Since the group has a knack for combining dancehall reggae with hardcore punk, the music can be nervy and invigorating, but their joyous blend of cultures doesn't fare so well at the lyrical level. No matter how you look at it, "Date Rape" isn't a bold, ironic satire on macho mores — it's frat rock that's bound to be misinterpreted, especially with its homophobic "I can't take pity on men of his kind, even though he now takes it in the behind" conclusion. Lyrics like that prevent 40 Oz. to Freedom from being the cracking, skanking skatepunk record that it had the potential to be.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Biography by Stephen Thomas ErlewineCypress Hill were notable for being the first Latino hip-hop superstars, but they became notorious for their endorsement of marijuana, which actually isn't a trivial thing. Not only did the group campaign for its legalization, but their slow, rolling bass-and-drum loops pioneered a new, stoned funk that became extraordinary influential in '90s hip-hop -- it could be heard in everything from Dr. Dre's G-funk to the chilly layers of English trip-hop. DJ Muggs crafted the sound, and B Real, with his pinched, nasal voice, was responsible for the rhetoric that made them famous. The pro-pot position became a little ridiculous over time, but there was no denying that the actual music had a strange, eerie power, particularly on the band's first two albums. Although B Real remained an effective lyricist and Muggs' musical skills did not diminish, the group's third album, Temples of Boom, was perceived by many critics as self-parodic, and the group appeared to disintegrate shortly afterward, though Muggs and B Real regrouped toward the end of the '90s to issue more material.DVX, the original incarnation of Cypress Hill, formed in 1986 when Cuban-born brothers Sen Dog (born Senen Reyes, November 20, 1965) and Mellow Man Ace hooked up with fellow Los Angeles residents Muggs (born Lawrence Muggerud, January 28, 1968) and B Real (born Louis Freese, June 2, 1970). The group began pioneering a fusion of Latin and hip-hop slang, developing their own style by the time Mellow Man Ace left the group in 1988. Renaming themselves Cypress Hill after a local street, the group continued to perform around L.A., eventually signing with Ruffhouse/Columbia in 1991.With its stoned beats, B Real's exaggerated nasal whine, and cartoonish violence, the group's eponymous debut became a sensation in early 1992, several months after its initial release. The singles "How I Could Just Kill a Man" and "The Phuncky Feel One" became underground hits, and the group's public promarijuana stance earned them many fans among the alternative rock community. Cypress Hill followed the album with Black Sunday in the summer of 1993, and while it sounded remarkably similar to the debut, it nevertheless became a hit, entering the album charts at number one and spawning the crossover hit "Insane in the Brain." With Black Sunday, Cypress Hill's audience became predominantly white, collegiate suburbanites, which caused them to lose some support in the hip-hop community. The group didn't help matters much in 1995, when they added a new member, drummer Bobo, and toured with the fifth Lollapalooza prior to the release of their third album, Temples of Boom. A darker, gloomier affair than their first two records, Temples of Boom was greeted with mixed reviews upon its fall 1995 release, and while it initially sold well, it failed to generate a genuine hit single. However, it did perform better on the R&B charts than it did on the pop charts.Instead of capitalizing on their regained hip-hop credibility, Cypress Hill slowly fell apart. Sen Dog left in early 1996 and Muggs spent most of the year working on his solo album. Muggs Presents the Soul Assassins was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews in early 1997, leaving Cypress Hill's future in much doubt until the release of IV in 1998. Sen Dog had come back for the record. He had left because he felt he did not get enough mic time, but after a few years with a rock band he was more than happy to return. Two years later, the group released the double-disc set Skull & Bones, which featured a disc of hip-hop and a disc of their more rock-inspired material. Appropriately, the album also included rock and rap versions of the single "Superstar," bringing Cypress Hill's quest for credibility and crossover hits full circle. The ensuing videos for both versions featured many famous rap and rock musicians talking about their profession, and the song was a smash on MTV because of it. In the winter of 2001, the group came back with Stoned Raiders, another album to heavily incorporate rock music. Three years later, the band issued Till Death Do Us Part, which incorporated several styles of Jamaican music.

This trippy little e-book came to me from some friends out in the ether.

Partake, read and play some games, enjoy, partake again. Per Dr. Trustar's orders.

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420 (cannabis culture)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis drug subculture.

*Origins and observances

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One explanation of the origin of the term stems from a story about a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California, United States in 1971. The teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. The exact time was chosen because that was the time that afternoon detention was dismissed. By extension April 20 ("4/20" in U.S. date notation) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. In some locations this celebration coincides with Earth Week. In Dunedin, New Zealand, members of Otago NORML were arrested and issued trespass notices after attempting to openly smoke cannabis on the Otago University Union Lawn at the regular 4:20pm protest meetings A large celebration is held every year on the University of Colorado's Boulder's campus, with attendance reaching more than 10,000 in 2008. University faculty have tried various methods to prevent the gathering, including turning on sprinklers and photographing students participating in the event but the crowd has grown every year.

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High Holy Day for Potheads Farhad Manjoo 04.20.02

April has two days when many Americans, en masse, engage in something that's plainly illegal but is, they swear, OK to do anyway because everyone does it and it doesn't hurt a soul and it makes you feel just so very happy.The first of these days has already passed: April 15, tax day, when millions of Americans, according to the latest research, fail to pay billions in taxes. The other day is April 20, a day when thousands, if not millions, will "mow the grass." That's a polite way of saying that these folks get baked, blitzed, paggered, blazed, obliterated, perved, shmacked ... in other words, they get high, as 4/20 is recognized by many as "national smokers day."

The term "420" and its attendant traditions date back to the 1970s, but at least some evidence exists -- enough to convince any stoner, at least -- that the term has experienced something of a resurgence in our electronic times.On message boards and community sites across the Web, it's possible to find people who are "420 friendly," meaning that they'd love to meet you and smoke your dope.And for such people, 4/20 is the recognized day to get your smoke on. And especially at 4:20 a.m. or p.m. on 4/20, and especially while listening to Phish. This year, dozens of celebrations are planned across the globe.In San Francisco, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML, will finish up its two-day conference "celebrating personal freedom.""Once again we have scheduled the conference to coincide with '4/20,' that date that has become associated in the popular culture as a special day for marijuana smokers -- sort of what 'It's Miller time' has become to beer drinkers," the group said on its site. "We hope to build on that tradition and encourage supporters from across the country to join us in San Francisco as a way to celebrate 4/20."The event comes after a week of attention focused on NORML, which spent half a million dollars to run ads (PDF) in New York City asking Mayor Michael Bloomberg to fine and ticket -- rather than arrest -- people caught smoking marijuana in the street. The ads feature Bloomberg's response to a New York magazine reporter's query about whether he'd ever used marijuana. The mayor said, "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it."

Given the nature of the celebration, of course, not all of the scheduled events are so political. Most, it seems, are music festivals that might have been going on anyway, but which promise to have some added pep in honor of the day.The Web is rife with speculation regarding the origin of the term "420." An old yarn has it that 420 was a California police code cops used when they'd spotted someone getting high, and that drug users co-opted the word. Some think it has to do with Hitler's birthday, April 20th -- which is, not entirely coincidentally, also the day in 1999 that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people, and themselves, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

But the consensus opinion has come to rest on a theory put forth by Steven Hager, the editor of High Times, in the magazine in 1998. Hager told the story of the Waldos, a group of San Rafael High School kids who gave Hager evidence -- letters, and so on -- to show they had created the term 420.

This is how the term began, according to Hager's article: "One day, while (the Waldos) were sitting on the wall, a friend gave them a treasure map to a pot patch on nearby Point Reyes Peninsula. 'His brother grew the patch,' said Steve (one of the Waldos).

"The Waldos decided to meet after school and pick the patch. Since school got out at 3:10, and since some of the Waldos had after-school activities that lasted approximately one hour, someone decided they should meet at exactly 4:20 p.m., at the statue of Louis Pasteur, which was located near the entrance to the school parking lot."

After that, the Waldos -- who have their own site at Waldo420.com -- naturally began using 420 as shorthand for cannabis. The Waldos were big fans of the Grateful Dead, and, as Hager explains in his article, "the 420 expression leaked into the Deadhead community and spread from there."In an e-mail message, Hager said that the Internet further aided the spread of the term, as "Deadheads were the first big group of Internet users."Asked what he would be doing to celebrate this year's 4/20, Hager wrote that he will be "in Magic Meadow, near the top of Overlook Mountain, which is just above Woodstock, New York."

And what will people do after 4/20, when pot day is over? They'll smoke more, according to one post on the Bay Area Community site, Craigslist."A bunch of 420 worshipers who didn't get enough on 4/20 are meeting at Raleigh's in Berkeley on Telegraph (Avenue at) 5:30 on Sunday," it said. "Come burn in summer with us."

One thing I realised about carfilms, or whatever you might call them, is that a certain degree of monotony is always required (check out the wonderful Two Lane Blacktop to see what I mean). If you waste too much time with backgrounds, character development, story etc the really important stuff starts lacking (the car as an instrument of freedom, the road, the desert...). In this way Vanishing Point is the perfect carmovie: it's about the most monotonous, yet beautiful things i've ever seen! It's about:1. The car2. The road3. The desert4. The musicAnd nothing else! Some vague attempts are made to make a character out of Kowalski, but fortunely they're small in numbers. The car is the true main character of the film.I recommend this film with all my heart.

IMBD

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From DIGG

"Vanishing Point" is an almost perfect artifact of its time. The story is heavy on weird coincidences, self-indulgent spirituality and the significance of insignificant events. But those were all defining elements of the early 1970s. Fortunately, so were big-engine musclecars. No one remembers the silly existential mysticism of "Vanishing Point," but the white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T that dominates the movie is unforgettable.Forget the plot, it's stupid. The mysterious Kowalski, whose tragic history includes stints as a racer and cop (no first name is ever mentioned), is determined to win a bet with his Benzedrine supplier that he can drive the Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours. Barry Newman, who plays Kowalski, and the great Cleavon Little, who plays blind radio disc jockey Super Soul, can only do so much with this clearly outdated script. Still, there are some speeches by Super Soul that are so freakish they have their own weird poetry.Forget all that. What's great about "Vanishing Point" is the sight of that white Challenger barrelling along in the open desert. It crosses medians at top speed, leaps across rivers while running from motorcycle cops, and nearly collides with every moving object west of the Mississippi. Every time Kowalski reaches for the Pistol Grip shifter is a case study in why musclecars continue to have a death grip on America's automotive soul.It's also obvious that director Richard C. Sarafian understood the importance of automotive realism. The film is never sped up to fake speed, and you can hear Kowalski bark the tires power-shifting the Challenger's four-speed several times. Plus, the Mopar's 440-cubic-inch V8 plays one of the sweetest automotive soundtracks in movie history.Naturally, the real stars here are the Challenger, which begins the film as a perfect, even shiny, new car, and the stunt driver behind its wheel, Cary Loftin. Loftin piloted the Challenger through most of the action. As stunt coordinator he brought with him driver Bill Hickman and driver/fabricator Max Balchowsky. All three had worked together on 1968's "Bullitt" and, as a team, they were behind dozens of great chases. "Bullitt" remains a classic, but really the driving is even better in "Vanishing Point," where there are more blind cuts across traffic, higher speeds and fearless leaps down into ravines.For no apparent reason Kowalski gets suicidal at the end of the film and decides to plow the Challenger into a roadblock of a couple of bulldozers rather than give himself up to the police. Infamously, the Challenger somehow morphs into a '67 Camaro before it hits the dozers, but it's still one of the most spectacular one-car crashes ever put on film. There's also something to be said for the iconic image of a bare-naked Gilda Texter riding around the desert on a motorcycle.

Friday, April 17, 2009

One of the many Eliki groups spawned after The Ventures sowed their guitar seeds in Japan in 1962.

Haru No Umi (which both opens and closes the album) is jaw-dropping--it starts as mellow traditional Japanese music an then builds to an all-out Eleki stomper.Vicious guitar licks, surf induced wah-wah and fuzz distorted interceptions, all pored over with an oriental sonic garage back base. This really rocks and stings like a bat out of hell. A vicious party slammer, psyched up, fuzzed-out and fuelled up ready to leave burning tire tracks all over your sorry ass. This disc is not yet been detected by the larger psychedelic collecting crowd, so it comes quite cheap. We speak of 1968 here, real stunning album and quite rare these days. Highest recommendation-popsike.com

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Yes, our friend mredondo is back to his tricks again, this time bringing you his take on all things music, art and style. A little bit of everything to be had in the blogosphere for your eyes and ears.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Degenerate mayhem in the form of surf/psychobilly punk. The Surf Sluts hail from York and add their own filthy flavour to obscure surf b-side covers. They have some of their own tracks also, some raucous, some cool and mellow. Particularly good are the instrumental tracks such as 'Dragster' and 'The Rattler' that recapture Dick Dale or The Ventures cruising on base speed.Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous - such as 'Greasy Chicken' which is feverishly hilarious , or 'Dry Dock In Doha' - a track about a Singaporean bringing goods through customs in Qatar (I think). Musically you cannot fault the Surf Sluts, they're tight and professional and have their chaos well structured. It's generally fun but it genuinely is great surf music albeit performed by northern white trash rednecks whose music is guaranteed to make you dance until you're sick and in a cold sweat.Ollie - http://www.astro-zombie.com/

Also after doing a little more research, octopus May be put in your bouillabaisse. How about that!

Mixture of surf-music, garage rock and punk rock for an explosive set consists of original compositions and different times and varied (from Link Wray Dead Kennedys, through the Tornadoes, Bobby Fuller, Dick Dale ...! ). The training is composed of members of Second Rate, Munky Posse, Ronnie and the Rockets. They played with Dick Dale (USA), Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (USA), Sonny Vincent (USA), Custom Made Scare (USA), the Darlington (Usa), the Pipelines (Sweden), Neurotic Swingers, Hellsuckers, the Juanitos , Jerry Spider Gang, Weak, Hellbats, Chewbacca All Stars, Sparkling Bombs, Second Rate, the Hatepinks, Surfin 'Matadors, El Ray (Denmark), the Manikin (Sweden), Bikini Machine, Uncommonmenfrommars, Los Banditos (Germany), Leopaul Kraus (Germany) and many others ... In 2003, release of their excellent debut album 'Let There Be Surf'. In 2004 came out: 'The Octopus Incident? " A super album ý ý add no-fault 'Let There Be Surf'. After a series of tours including dates on their site, the group decided to separate, leaving us one last album 'The Shape Of Surf To Come', in November 2005. A lot of tracks to listen / download on their website (new): Proud to be a cryptic surfer, Too drunk to surf, Batman revisited (super), La Bruta, Rumble, and so on. including the excellent 'Electric spiderman' which is not yet on an album (compilation only) in line with their second album or some tracks from the album (Surf 'n' Destroy, Astrocrypt Hellsurfer, etc.). Google Translator from French to English

After a series of tours including dates on their site, the group decided to separate, leaving us one last album 'The Shape Of Surf To Come', in November 2005.

A lot of tracks to listen / download on their website (new): Proud to be a cryptic surfer, Too drunk to surf, Batman revisited (super), La Bruta, Rumble, and so on. including the excellent 'Electric spiderman' which is not yet on an album (compilation only) in line with their second album or some tracks from the album (Surf 'n' Destroy, Astrocrypt Hellsurfer, etc.)..

Friday, April 10, 2009

A very special suprise today in hearing from Sandy of Sandy's Surfspot and Endless Summer fame. He, in our opinion, sparked many of us to channel our love of surf music and to lay it all out for you folks and to dig for more. I've always been a fan but until I got the blog-bug after several years of P2P sharing, I did'nt have any clue how much more was out there.

Yesterdays post of volumes 1-5 got Sandy's juices to flowin' and his brain to thinkin' he should put together a new comp for all of us diehard reverb-freaks out here. Another fine one for the collection

Living in So Cal surf music was always a part of the soundtrack of my life but faced intense aural competition from all of the other genres of music running through my head. I still am very into my R'nR, Blues, Reggae, Lounge and Jazz music and have tried to share a bit with you all. But the main emphasis of this blog has gone the way of the sea. And that's OK with me.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

There are files for each side of the album as they were recorded as one track each (as it should by heard) , in addition to a complete track split. You pick 'em.

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Waikiki Surf Battle is a summary of the two releases from 1963 and 1964. It features some really amazing stuff. Side one is recorded at the 1963 battle, and side two at the 1964 battle, both held at the Waikiki Shell, with 10,000 screaming teens in attendance. The sound is ambient, but man-oh-man, some of these tracks are amazing, especially the Spiedels.The list of bands in attendance is impressive enough from the tracks included, but there were many more. The Delrays, the Escents, Denny and the Dukes, the Harmonics, the Bel-Aires, the Regents, the Road Runners (3rd place in '63), Judy and the Belmonts (2nd place in '63), the Strollers, the Raiders, the Impacts, the Majestics, the Checkmates, the Adventures, the Sensations, the Frolic Five, the Escorts, the Arcades, the Duplex, the Thunderbirds, and the Kona Casuals. Many are featured on the second volume. Phil Dirt

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Phil's Track by Track Comments

High Surf Surf (Instrumental)"High Surf" is very heavily influenced by "Surf Beat," but with a variant melody. Intense vintage reverb in the riff surf vein. The string slide notes are pretty cool.

Vagabond Fever Surf (Instrumental)"Vagabond Fever" is a zesty surf rager not unlike some of the finer originals to come out of the Midwest. The youthful exuberance of the band is only exceeded by the sparkling guitar. Major fun and vital period surf magic.

Last Night Surf Blues (Instrumental)This is a pretty bluesy tune, and with the dreadful mix, the melody line to "Last Night" is almost completely lost. It ends up like a minor Freddie King backtrack.

Wipe Out Surf Blues (Instrumental)One of the better known of the Hawaiian surf bands of the era, the Statics to a brutally flawed "Wipe Out" while keeping their chins up. I'll bet they were damn happy when it was over. Even the liners called it their "nervous '63 mangle." Still, they ended up in second place the following year.

Panic Button Surf Jam (Instrumental)This isn't the Fireballs' tune. "Panic Button" is a rabid riff rocker with no shortage of fire, but generally lacking in melody.

Surf Rider Surf (Instrumental)This girl band does a very odd version of "Surf Rider" with a restrained performance and a ukulele feel. Vibrant and unabashed, yet quite amateur.

Zombie Monster Surf (Instrumental)The monster theme opener quickly yields to an interesting surf melody cranked out with full force and speed. Great arranging and infectious writing create an above average surf intro. Though the sound is pretty suckie, the spirit is really strong.

Apache Surf (Instrumental)This is a relatively basic performance of "Apache," with vibrato on the lead, and intense tone on the second guitar.

Pipeline / Move It Surf (Instrumental)The Spiedles were easily the best of the bands at the 1963 battle, and indeed they won first place. This is a very tuff performance. Milton Soong's rhythm guitar drives the second guitar part with intense tone. I asked Milton once how he got that sound, but he didn't remember. After a couple of verses of "Pipeline," the glissando drops into the absolute best version of "Move It" ever! No joke! Milton's intense tone and vibrant neck slides drive this otherwise quirky tune to become a real surf monster. They should have cut an album. Essential surf.

Pressure Surf (Instrumental)The Pyramids' "Pressure" gets reverent treatment from the Dimensions. Aside from a heavy handed ultra reverbed sound, the arrangement is true to the single. The intensity of the guitars gives it a lot more power than the original.

Journey To The Stars Surf (Instrumental)"Journey To The Stars" is treated like a strait cover, and is well done. Nothing new here, except the delivery is a bit tuffer and more vibrant than the Ventures' original. The organ part is carried via double picked guitar duet. Pretty cool.

War Of The Satellites Surf (Instrumental)The Ventures' "War Of The Satellites" is played straight, right down to the silliness of the embellishing notes. It is more powerful, but still not really interesting.

Cruel Sea Surf (Instrumental)The Dakotas' surf B-side is well played and presented the way the Ventures cut it. Nothing special.

Penetration Surf (Instrumental)The Rivals arranged this based on the Ventures' version, even using echo instead of reverb. It is less silly than theirs, but also less interesting than the Pyramids' original single.

Surf Jam Surf (Instrumental)An unlikely name for a Hawaiian surf band (or any other surf band for that matter), but here they are. The Lepricons' take on the Beach Boys' "Surf Jam" is less interesting than the original, but that's mostly because the performance is kinda funky.

Static Beat Surf (Instrumental)This is a pretty interesting track. Quite outside what you'd consider trad surf from a rhythm guitar chord progression point of view, yet sporting a very cool lead riff. The chord progression approximates the Revel's "Church Key," and indeed a few bars are thrown in for the break. The Statics won second place in the 1964 battle.

The Ward Rock (Instrumental)Chuck Berry chords and noodling does not a surf instro make, but then here are some shine double picked moments. Melody free nonsense. How they won the 1964 battle is a wonder, but then it was the Beatles' era, and they mostly did rip off Berry's chords, as did the Beach Boys, so maybe it's not so strange.

Miserlou Surf (Instrumental)Here we go, with another hot performance by the amazing Spiedels. Miserlou is traditionally arranged and played with amazing fire and spunk. The arrangement is a blend of Dick Dale and his Del-tones' single and the album version ("Miserlou Twist"). Hot and fast.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Since the new Fast & The Furious movie comes out tomorrow decided that I wanted to get this one out to more than just the Wait For The Ricochet... crowd. Let 'er rip!

Cult film director Monte Hellman follows up his legendary westerns THE SHOOTING and RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND with another bona fide classic, this time set on the paved highways of early 1970s America. Making their acting debuts, musicians Dennis Wilson and James Taylor play a pair of drag-racing drifters who battle against willing competitors all along the back roads of America, encountering a wild cast of characters. After stopping for lunch one afternoon, Taylor (The Driver) and Wilson (The Mechanic) discover a young woman in their back seat (Laurie Bird, credited as (The Girl). The newly formed trio continues to head east, and places a risky bet with Warren Oates after bumping into each other at a gas station. The first automobile to arrive in Washington D.C. is the winner. The prize: the loser's car (Taylor and Wilson drive a 1955 Chevy, while Oates pilots a 1970 Pontiac GTO). Strangely enough, rather than turning into a relentless fight to the finish, none of the participants seem too worried about picking up the pace. In fact, they act as if they're afraid of reaching their destinations, spurning an endless series of sidetracks that turns Hellman's film into a broad existential metaphor and cementing its place as one of 1970s Hollywood's bravest motion pictures.

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Reviewed by CINETROPICThirty years is a long time. In thirty years, you forget the details; the essence of life in 1970, until a rare screening of Two-Lane Blacktop brings it all back. Aside from the fact we were all much thinner then; the men had gorgeous sun drenched hair and an inexplicable quality of gentleness beneath a reckless, defiant exterior. Forget the war, the Cultural Revolution, for those of us sweet young things who populated the streets across America on Saturday night, we watched a young man's identity evolve from the horsepower under the hood of their Chevy Chevelle, Ford Mach I, or perhaps a Pontiac GTO. The rumble of glass pack mufflers, blurred by the glint of chrome, raging through the ¼ mile in the moonlight was as erotic as the rhythm of any bass guitar.The emission control laws of the early 1970's added a few generations of life to the earth, but pushed those great muscle cars into the showrooms and garages of modern reality. On a rare Sunday, one of those garage doors opens and for a brief afternoon you can still catch the glint of passion in the eyes of one of those gentle, reckless souls of summer.*